More Than Friends
by wackystrings123
Summary: He tells her how he feels...but does she feel the same way? TxG threeshot.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I'd love to take credit for this idea, but I can't, my best friend came up with it in French class, but the ending and the writing is all mine! It was originally meant to be a oneshot but I changed it into a two-shot so look out for the next chapter.**

**Enjoy.**

He couldn't.

Not now, not ever.

But as he stared at the charcoal tresses falling over the girls golden shoulders he knew he already had, whether he liked it or not.

Troy Bolton was not the kind of person that would notice plain, straight A+ girls, but something about a certain plain, straight A+ girl somehow managed to not only capture his eye but also his heart. The first time he realized the he was falling for her was during Spanish class—a class he only took to get closer to her.

He was staring transfixed at the back of her head, taking notes on all the little things she did that caused his stomach to perform continuous flips inside of him; like how she pushed her hair over her shoulder whenever it fell over her face or eyes, or like how whenever she was thinking hard she either chew on the end of her pencil or on her bottom lip, or whenever someone decided to be funny and her giggle would stand out from everyone else to his ears. He even took down things she liked and disliked, her habits, hobbies and the list went on.

At one point all his friend's teased him about his little crush on the new girl and called him a stalker, but that all changed when they realized just how much he actually loved the girl aka his best friend.

He closed his eyes and tried to push all thoughts of her aside. He knew he couldn't go on living like this; he had to tell her but he really did NOT want to ruin the close friendship they shared; if he lost her, then he lost everything.

He raised his head, expecting to see the back of her head again, but was shocked when his eyes came into contact with her soft mocha ones. Her lips stretched into a smile as they both stared at one another, no words needed to express how they were feeling; but there was something called a teacher in the room, who thought it would be best to interrupt the moment. Troy looked down at his pencil which he tapped impatiently against the wood of his desk.

The bell rang eons later and Troy had shot out of his seat and out of the door before the teacher could even say "class dismissed".

As he walked to his next class, Troy decided that he was going to tell her exactly how he felt about her that very same day, no matter what.

He stood by his truck in front of her house, his hands buried deep within the pockets of his jeans. He was way, _way_, beyond nervous.

He could feel his heart thumping erratically against his ribs and even though it was like twenty-something degrees, he found himself sweating, especially his armpits and his palms. Without hesitation and several deep breaths Troy made his way to the Montez's back yard and climbed up the large tree, he had become so familiar with, that led to Gabriella Montez's balcony. He landed with a soft thump on the tiled floor and brushed dirt off his jeans; he had to at _least _look presentable. Without making much noise he tiptoed towards the French glass doors and tried peering through the thin curtains.

He could barely see anything so he tried the door and it opened.

As soon as he stepped into the semi-dark room, his nostrils were instantly overwhelmed by the familiar smell of cinnamon, vanilla and with a hint strawberries; her scent. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply remembering how she always smelled like those whenever the two were near. He could vividly remember the times he would just pull her into his arms and bury his face into her unruly hair and stay that way until she would pull away.

"Troy?"

Troy jumped at the sound of the angelic voice whispering his name. He felt his cheeks heat up as he had been caught day-dreaming by the same person he had been day dreaming about. Troy looked up to find Gabriella lying on her stomach, on her bed, with a book nestling on her pillow. His eyes traveled from her purple cotton pajama bottoms printed with tiny panda bears, past the light tank top, and the dark curls tumbling down her shoulders, all the way up to the dark chocolate eyes staring quizzically up at him.

"H-hi" he tried lamely. With a small smile, Gabriella closed the book and sat up with her legs dangling off the edge of the bed. She patted the empty space next to her when she saw the nervous boy by her balcony door make no attempt to approach her. It took Troy a little longer than usual to understand what she meant but when he did; he awkwardly shuffled across the floor with a bright red face and waterfalls running down his body.

"So, what's up Wildcat?"

Troy played with his fingers nervously and just shrugged "not much I guess."

Gabriella took one of his hands in hers and interlocked their fingers and turned to face him. "What's wrong?" Troy opened his mouth to speak but shut it quickly, shook his head and dropped his eyes to his feet. The female brunette tentatively pushed his hair out of his face and stroked the side of his face, forcing him to meet her concerned eyes, "Wildcat, you're scaring me." She murmured desperately.

"I don't mean to." He admitted, taking his hand out of hers and wrapping it around her petite body; he pulled her close and buried his face into her sweet smelling locks. They stayed like that for some time, both tense and awkward.

"Ella…"

Gabriella looked up as her name left Troy's lips. She stayed silent, waiting for him to continue; but all he did was shake his head and pull away from her. Troy buried his face in his hands and began mentally cursing himself for chickening out.

"Are you okay?"

Troy raised his head and just stared at her, a thousand questions running through his head, but the brightest one was _should he kiss her._ He looked down to her lips. Should he?

He ran his moist tongue over his parched lips and swallowed loudly.

He couldn't. He shook his head and turned away missing the look of hurt and disappointment that crossed Gabriella's features. She had absolutely no idea what came over her in that second; one minute she felt rejected and the next she felt a sudden burst of want and grabbed Troy's face and pressed her lips flush against him. She could feel his shock, his confusion but her mind barely took note of it as heat flushed through her beginning from their joined lips. Sure she'd kissed several guys before this and had even been seconds away from losing her virginity during some high school party where she'd drunk too much but none of that compared to the fire she felt in her stomach at the contact. He kissed her back, with the same force, tangling his fingers in the hairs the tumbled down her back.

Then he pulled back for air, and she was crushed.

"I'm s-sorry." She muttered really meaning it. Without waiting for a response she ran to the bathroom, red faced and heart racing. She slammed the door shut behind her locked it and leaned her weight against it, her legs unable to hold her up she sunk to the ground and rested her forehead on her knees.

Back in her room Troy was unable to move. He sat on her bed in the same position, unblinking. He wasn't sure exactly what had happened in the last few minutes; one minute he was trying to tell Gabriella how he felt about her and the next thing he knew she was kissing him, or at least he _thought _so. He was at loss for words as he finally collected his wits and followed Gabriella to the bathroom.

"Ella…" he called but his only response was silence. He sighed and ran his fingers through his tousled hair. "El, talk to me."

More silence.

"Please tell me you don't regret…what just happened, because I sure as hell don't." He sighed once more and dropped to the floor of the door and leaned against the wood. "What I'm trying to say is ever since that day, at the ski lodge, with that book in your hand when the spotlight landed on you and you had that scared look in your eyes, and the amber flecks in them when the light shone on them and the way your voice made me forget about everything around me. Then when we were outside and the fireworks went off I wanted to kiss you so bad but then you turned away and I thought it wasn't what you wanted," he paused and waited for some sort of reaction from her but none came so he continued, "then after the game I was gonna kiss you but then Chad showed up with the ball and I got so mad I wanted to punch him, and I had so many other chances to show…to tell you how I felt, but I didn't wanna lose our friendship, so I stayed silent. Truth is I don't wanna be _just _your best _friend _Troy Bolton, I wanna be more, so much more."

The loud intake of breath from the other side fully convinced him that she was there and listening.

"I know most people would say what I feel isn't love but I know it is, I've never felt this way about anyone, I love you Gabriella." He admitted bravely. After a long few minutes, with no sound from both teens, Troy glanced warily at his watch and stood up. "I-um. I'll see you in school?" he asked hopefully, hoping she would walk out and face him and return his feelings; nothing

He sighed, "good night Gabriella".


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: I am really sorry for not updating sooner, but I hope this will make up for the wait. BTW, I recently posted a new one-shot, _A Trip Down Memory Lane_, check it out and review.

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It had been 1 hour, 15 minutes and 34 seconds since he had told Gabriella how he felt and now he was regretting it more than ever.

Slung carelessly on the couch with the television blaring meaninglessly, Troy stared down at the carpet, pretending to be interested in the zebra pattern design.

How could he have been so stupid? It was pretty obvious that she was not in any way interested in him. No wonder she had backed away after she had kissed him. _She _kissed _him_. Not the other way around; she had been the one to make the move, not him. Meaning that there was a possibility that just maybe she felt something for him! This thought caused him to sit up a little straighter and tear his gaze from the carpet. Or maybe she kissed you out of pity? More like to poke fun at me. His lean body fell back into its pervious stance.

"Fuck!" he snarled rubbing the side of his face with his callused hand. "She only kissed me for a fucking laugh?" he grabbed one of his mothers expensive pillows and hurled it at the blaring screen, "fuck her!" his throat tightened as the words passed through his dry lips. Who the hell did she think she was? Had she forgotten that he was and still is _the _Troy Bolton?

The inexplicable anger inside him raged to his core. He felt the need to break something, throw something, anything to get rid of the hurt and rejection he felt. He grabbed another pillow and threw it, not caring where it landed. This was soon followed by several others.

Then a knock sounded at the door.

Tremulous with anger, Troy shakily placed the ornate vase on the coffee table and slowly approached the door. What he saw when he opened it caused his heart to freeze in his chest and his lungs to collapse.

Gabriella stood before him, her shoulders hunched and her small arms wrapped protectively around her petite body, which was shaking violently from the cold. Her dark drenched hair clung to her forehead and bare shoulders. She looked up at him, tears leaking out of her frightened mocha orbs.

"T-Tr-oy."

"Oh shit Ella!" He immediately wrapped his arms around her, not caring if she was soaked to the bone, and led her into his house.

His fingers felt like fire against her frozen skin, though, oddly enough she craved for more of the delicious heat. He gently wrapped her up in a large towel and she felt herself instantaneously relax in his comforting hold. Her body still racked with dangerous shivers and her teeth chattered uncontrollably but none of that bothered her at that moment for she was with him; in his arms.

"We need to get you out of these." She distantly heard him say as he steered her away from the living room, not caring about where he was taking her. She just let her eyelids drop and lean her trembling body against his hard one, reveling in the warmth radiating off his skin. Within seconds, the sound of running water filled Gabriella's ears and the heat that had been wrapped so snugly around her disappeared. Dazed and confused, her eyes flew open and she stared blankly around the tiled bathroom. She was sitting on the edge of the bathtub, with the scorching water gushing out of the taps.

"T-Tro-y-y?" she stuttered, wrapping her arms firmly around the soft towel encasing her small frame. "I'm here, Ella." she could not point out the direction of the sound but just hearing his gentle and worried voice was enough the ease away the tight knots forming in her gut. Troy reappeared, kneeling before her and replaced the cold bitter air with his warm heat once more. He carefully unwrapped the towel from around her and flung it behind him. He softly caressed her cold shoulder, trying hard to produce enough heat to reduce the shivers. "Let's get you out of these before you catch pneumonia."

Just hearing worry in his voice and feeling the heat of his skin on hers made her remember just why she had run through the pounding rain at the un-godly hour. "I-I'm…s-s…so-sorr-y," she breathed painfully, trying to utter sense. Troy's darkening azure pools lifted to meet hers, their intensity burned a hole through and she had to look away. His large hands framed her pale face, scalding her frigid cheeks, and forced her to place her tearful eyes back on his tormented ones. His callused thumb stoked the skin beneath her shimmering eyes, "hey, don't apologize," as the words flowed out of his mouth he leaned up and pressed his moist lips against her cold forehead, but not before pushing her wet tendrils away from her face, "you don't owe anyone an apology, okay?" he murmured against her skin. Still not convinced, Gabriella shut her eyes and let several tears leak out of the corners of her eyes before nodding reluctantly.

With a slightly relieved sigh, Troy pulled back and returned to task of undressing her. As he lifted her tank top to reveal her flat tabbed stomach, Gabriella's shaky hands rose to meet his. He flicked his gaze back to her and nodded apologetically, "sorry, I…I didn't think…I just…"

He trailed off as a soft smile grazed Gabriella's features, "d-don't…wo-worry ab…a…about-t…it." With strength she did not even know that she possessed at that point of time, given her weak state, she pulled herself up into a standing position, turned away from Troy and rid herself of the drenched article of clothing.

"I…err, I'll um be outside if you…um, you know…um need me." He muttered awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck, a clear sign that he was nervous; but about what?

Wrapping her small arms around her front, Gabriella turned around and called him just as his fist wrapped around the cold metal of the door knob. "No," she panted covering her front more securely as she noticed him struggling to keep his eyes on her, "s-s-stay, pl-p-please." Troy nervously moistened his lips and nodded, "okay…um only, only if you're sure about this?"

Gabriella nodded feverously, "yeah, b-b-but tu-turn around."

Troy did as he was told and turned away and shoved his hands deep inside his pockets. The sound of wet material hitting the floor filled the silent bathroom.

"Troy?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm d-done."

With his guidance and strength, and the towel to provide cover for her womanly parts, Gabriella slid into the warms foamy water filling the tub. A hiss escaped her clenched teeth as the scalding water seeped through her skin and worked hastily at melting her frozen blood.

"Is it to hot?" Troy questioned his voice immediately drippy with concern.

"It's, it's p-p-erf-fect." She shut her eyes and slid deeper into the warm water, "P-please don't go." She mumbled hurriedly as she heard vigorous ruffling. The ruffling stopped and she felt his presence next to her on the tub.

"Okay."

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**A/N: I guess this is turning into a three-shot. Review!**


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